I went to see President Obama speak last night at the University of Wisconsin campus. For the first time since I started blogging, I listened to what he was saying from the perspective of a critic. I tried to think divorce myself from the natural energy and power that his speaking evokes at least enough to focus on what he was saying and think about what he was asking for.
First, let me describe the scene. My wife and I both went and took our 8 year old god-daughter with us to the rally. I had done as much research as I could in advance, and saw that 15,000 were likely to attend. Turns out nearly 27,000 showed up, filling the Library Mall where the event was held and overflowing onto the hills surrounding campus. The crowd was surprisingly supportive and protests were mostly absent or low key. I personally was expecting less of an involved crowd, but the tone of the gathering was very high energy.
We arrived at about 3:30pm, which was when they started letting folks into the central area. The line had already stretched down the street for over 1.5 miles, roughly 4-6 people wide. I had the impressive experience of walking the length of that line and just marveling at how many people had showed up. As it turned out, folks had waited since early morning for the President's 6:00pm address.
The speech was good. The President focused on what the Democrats have accomplished and, for the first time in a long time, seemed to be handling the Republicans without kid gloves. He managed to hit the major points that progressives need to hear: He covered what he had actually accomplished including specific provisions of the health care reform bill, the further economic downturn averted, and tax cuts for the middle class among others.
The attacks on Republicans were responsible ones – something I have been yearning to see for a while. What I mean by responsible is that you didn't hear wild and/or false accusations or comparisons made to whip up artificial fear or anger. The choices advocated by the Republicans in their own documents were used to highlight the distinction between the parties. Certainly the Reps were blamed for the economic collapse, but it did happen on their watch. The Reps were blamed for doing nothing to help over the last two years, but the voting record supports that – the blockade set up by Republicans the last two years is not a matter of opinion, it's fact. The Republicans were accused, in very typical fashion, of pandering to the rich. Again, this isn't really subjective: the war over the Bush tax cuts has been over the 2-3% at the very top income bracket that the Republicans want to extend and the Democrats don't.
What's more important was what Obama DIDN'T say in his attacks. There was no lying here. There were numerous opportunities to use character assassination on the Republicans: With the recent tea-party hijack of the RNC's message control in the form of primary winners who stand on right wing radical views, Obama could have taken his pick of alarmist weapons to use – but he didn't.
To me, this is the difference between the current president and the current Republicans. As I've said numerous times, I am a supporter of American conservative thought. However the Republican Party has lost its ability to speak for those people. It lost badly in the last election and has responded by becoming more and more vitriolic, hateful, and paranoid. The dignity that Obama showed in his speech last night by keeping to the policy differences between the parties would never have come from the current Republican leadership. We would have heard alarmist references to socialism, to birth records, to Sharia and immorality, as if somehow the Democrats are made up of demons seeking to kill the faithful few.
So here I am, a moderate liberal – one who understands and concedes points about fiscal responsibility, limiting government involvement when it isn't necessary, tightly controlling taxation and a host of other conservative values – shrugging my shoulders and saying this:
The Republican Party needs to be kept OUT of office in 2010. I am asking my conservative and liberal friends both to vote and to vote Democrat.
If you are a conservative, do it because your party needs a wake-up call. They need to reconnect with the voters and they need a reason to do it. Your party has been hijacked by radicals and is no longer speaking for you, your interests, or your future. They are giving away the farm to companies and policies that have no bearing your lives. If you can't bring yourself to vote Democrat, don't vote. Do NOT support what the Republicans are turning into – a party of hate and fear.
If you are liberal, get off your ass. The fragmentation of the Republican party at this time threatens to put some dangerous people into office. People who will enact culture war style policies and laws that will set back any American's understanding of values a hundred years. Get off the couch, off the sidelines, and vote even if Obama hasn't wowed you quite like you hoped he might.
In the end, we need a healthy conservative and liberal party. Sometimes that means turning the ball over to the other side so that the team you're coaching can focus and remember for whom they play the game.
Let's make November 2 about America, not about whose 'side' won.
First, let me describe the scene. My wife and I both went and took our 8 year old god-daughter with us to the rally. I had done as much research as I could in advance, and saw that 15,000 were likely to attend. Turns out nearly 27,000 showed up, filling the Library Mall where the event was held and overflowing onto the hills surrounding campus. The crowd was surprisingly supportive and protests were mostly absent or low key. I personally was expecting less of an involved crowd, but the tone of the gathering was very high energy.
We arrived at about 3:30pm, which was when they started letting folks into the central area. The line had already stretched down the street for over 1.5 miles, roughly 4-6 people wide. I had the impressive experience of walking the length of that line and just marveling at how many people had showed up. As it turned out, folks had waited since early morning for the President's 6:00pm address.
The speech was good. The President focused on what the Democrats have accomplished and, for the first time in a long time, seemed to be handling the Republicans without kid gloves. He managed to hit the major points that progressives need to hear: He covered what he had actually accomplished including specific provisions of the health care reform bill, the further economic downturn averted, and tax cuts for the middle class among others.
The attacks on Republicans were responsible ones – something I have been yearning to see for a while. What I mean by responsible is that you didn't hear wild and/or false accusations or comparisons made to whip up artificial fear or anger. The choices advocated by the Republicans in their own documents were used to highlight the distinction between the parties. Certainly the Reps were blamed for the economic collapse, but it did happen on their watch. The Reps were blamed for doing nothing to help over the last two years, but the voting record supports that – the blockade set up by Republicans the last two years is not a matter of opinion, it's fact. The Republicans were accused, in very typical fashion, of pandering to the rich. Again, this isn't really subjective: the war over the Bush tax cuts has been over the 2-3% at the very top income bracket that the Republicans want to extend and the Democrats don't.
What's more important was what Obama DIDN'T say in his attacks. There was no lying here. There were numerous opportunities to use character assassination on the Republicans: With the recent tea-party hijack of the RNC's message control in the form of primary winners who stand on right wing radical views, Obama could have taken his pick of alarmist weapons to use – but he didn't.
To me, this is the difference between the current president and the current Republicans. As I've said numerous times, I am a supporter of American conservative thought. However the Republican Party has lost its ability to speak for those people. It lost badly in the last election and has responded by becoming more and more vitriolic, hateful, and paranoid. The dignity that Obama showed in his speech last night by keeping to the policy differences between the parties would never have come from the current Republican leadership. We would have heard alarmist references to socialism, to birth records, to Sharia and immorality, as if somehow the Democrats are made up of demons seeking to kill the faithful few.
So here I am, a moderate liberal – one who understands and concedes points about fiscal responsibility, limiting government involvement when it isn't necessary, tightly controlling taxation and a host of other conservative values – shrugging my shoulders and saying this:
The Republican Party needs to be kept OUT of office in 2010. I am asking my conservative and liberal friends both to vote and to vote Democrat.
If you are a conservative, do it because your party needs a wake-up call. They need to reconnect with the voters and they need a reason to do it. Your party has been hijacked by radicals and is no longer speaking for you, your interests, or your future. They are giving away the farm to companies and policies that have no bearing your lives. If you can't bring yourself to vote Democrat, don't vote. Do NOT support what the Republicans are turning into – a party of hate and fear.
If you are liberal, get off your ass. The fragmentation of the Republican party at this time threatens to put some dangerous people into office. People who will enact culture war style policies and laws that will set back any American's understanding of values a hundred years. Get off the couch, off the sidelines, and vote even if Obama hasn't wowed you quite like you hoped he might.
In the end, we need a healthy conservative and liberal party. Sometimes that means turning the ball over to the other side so that the team you're coaching can focus and remember for whom they play the game.
Let's make November 2 about America, not about whose 'side' won.
Comments
Post a Comment